Blue Ridge Wildlife Center Patient of the Week: Woodland Box Turtle

Photos / Blue Ridge Wildlife Center

What is happening to these turtles’ ears?

Although the weather is cooling and we are getting close to October 1st (the last day rehabilitators can release turtle patients until next May), we are continuing to get many turtles in for care!

In the past few days we’ve admitted 10 new turtle patients, and we already had two dozen in care. Two are pictured below with before and after photos.

Though we are still admitting turtles that were hit by cars and lawnmowers, which are the two most common reasons for admission, we have also taken in quite a few turtles with aural abscesses (ear infections that cause internal swelling).

These abscesses can sometimes be caused by trauma, but many are associated with vitamin A deficiency, which changes the tissues that make up the ear lining and predisposes these turtles to develop abscesses.

In captive turtles with abscesses, this is often due to a lack of dietary vitamin A. In the wild, some pesticides are known to alter the metabolism of vitamin A and have been linked to these abscesses.

Without treatment, these abscesses and will often cause turtles to stop eating, which could lead to death.

Though we are getting very close to October 1st, most aural abscess patients require just 1-2 weeks of care after the abscess is removed so we are hopeful that some of these patients will be released soon!

Did you know that turtles brumate? (Brumation in reptiles is similar to hibernation in mammals.) In our area, wild turtles brumate in the fall and winter months which is why the law in Virginia does not allow rehabilitators to release reptile patients between October 1 – April 30. Any turtle we can’t release before October, or who came to us within that time, overwinters with us at the Center. We keep them in a warm and humid room so they don’t fall into brumation and can continue to be rehabbed.

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